It was fine. Yep. Fine and dandy and lovely and all that good stuff, 'cause even though Nikki'd been gone a while now, even though she'd stumbled her way around half the compound and tripped a few times and stuff, well, people were sane. Turned out, the only crazy'd been... well, 'kay, it'd been the one person Nikki'd met face to face besides Siobhan, and that was a teeny little bit disconcerting, but hey, he'd shot at her. The first killer in this, and he'd shot at Nikki, and she'd backed him down, scared him off, all the while too drunk to see straight. That was pretty awesome. Her rep among the fanficers was sure to be nice and hot.

Only, there were whispers of nastiness, ugly little demons hanging out in the back of Nikki's head, saying stuff like, "Hey, so what? No one died, whoop-de-do. You're gonna starve instead of get stabbed. Lucky you." They were right, too. There were people who were fit for stuff like The Program. Those strong guys from gym, and those classy girls who looked more like women and could make anyone melt for 'em. Those were the stars, the real hits. Nikki... she'd be dang lucky to score a net shrine. And hey, with half a dozen sisters, wasn't like her family couldn't move on.

She glanced around, looking for a camera. Had to be one somewhere. She just had one little thing to say.

There. Under an overhang. Nikki went to it, looked up, pulled a face. Hey, if she was gonna be all sad and depressing, might as well cut the bite a bit first, yeah? 'specially since then maybe her awful slurring'd sound intentional. Yeah. 'kay, it was a bit weird to be jokey with this sort of message, but you took what you got, and she sure wasn't gonna do this again. Heck no.

"H-hey," she started. Great stammer. Bang, bye bye online mystique. She'd just have to win it back later.

Say, this looks like a big building. Shall I... I dunno, look through my stuff again?

Kami stared at the building in front of her.

Well, why didn't she go in? It was right there, and she pointed at the thing with her finger. The finger divined it! And yet, she wasn't sure if she wanted in, after all. Maybe she would stay outside, after all. Or maybe... gah! She had no clue.

Perhaps she could get her gun out, just to be safe. So she placed the bag on the ground...

Zip.

Kami pulled out the gun. There! Her new friend was out and ready to play. Hopefully it'll play nicely this time. You know, not shoot everyone she sees unless they are threatening in some way. Like if they were about to give you a Glasgow grin or something. Actually, that'd be kind of cool if she had a Glasgow grin carved into her face. She'd be like that bad clown guy in that old Batman movie. And then she'd tell stories about how she got them.

It sounded like a mumble if anything. She couldn't make out the words. It just sounded like talking! Someone was nearby, obviously. She was surprised she even picked up on it.

So, now what?

Eh, might as well see who's there.

Kami turned around, and walked towards what she presumed to be the source of the voice. Over there! Just only a few feet away to her right! They- or rather, she- was close. Yes, this was a girl who Kami had managed to hear. Who was it?

Better see what she wants!

Holding the gun with both hands this time, she pointed it towards the girl.

Bake We'll just ask Elena to add a new area into the compound. "Siobhan's Cleavage" - The spaciously large cleavage of an overweight, promiscuous cheerleader who wants to go to Beauty School. THREADS ALLOWED: 8

12:40 Slamexo She [Sidney] sells trollin' and trollin' accessories

02:41 Medic Why does the world hate my racist jackass--wait that speaks for itself.

Uh oh. Bad news, seemed like. Someone'd found Nikki, and it didn't sound like Ferrara, but that didn't mean anything. She shot the camera a smile and considered a wink before deciding it was just a teeny bit too flip, then turned to face the other person. Oh great. Someone she didn't know. Well, 'kay, that was, like, three quarters of the class, maybe more. What made this someone she didn't know just a bit more worthy of attention, what made Nikki wish she'd maybe been one of those boring social makeup-wearing girls who knew everyone, was that this someone she didn't know was holding a gun, holding a gun and pointing it at her.

Time to clear stuff up. Nikki tried to take a few steps back, but she had one of those woozy spells where the world went weird, so instead she just sorta stood there and stared, eyes wide.

"Hey, like, er, hi," she said. 'kay, suboptimal start to their acquaintance, but—wait, no, the bad start was so this other girl's fault. It wasn't like Nikki was the one waving the gun around and stuff. Wasn't like she was the one being awkward and vague, and even if she was, she was drunk. That was a totally valid excuse. If this girl had a gun, no way she'd gotten some awful joke weapon and had to drown the pain. She had a real shot at this. What was she doing being drunk?

Nikki's train of thought had jumped the tracks somewhere in there, so she decided to just cut to the chase and scare gun girl away.

"So, just so we're all upfront and stuff, I see you've got a gun and I just thought in fairness I should let you know that I'm the girl who challenged that guy who killed someone to a fight and stuff, so, yeah." With that, she tossed her hair, letting her braid kinda flip around a bit like she was some martial arts master or something.

Okay, so maybe she was being just a little deceptive. Maybe she was implying she'd killed a murderer when she'd actually been dragged away, too wasted to stand straight, as he laughed at her retreating back. But really, did this other potential killer need to know that?

Or drunk. God, Kami hated drunk people. They puked, peed, and pooped everywhere, and rambled on about weird things, and then went off to do weird things, such as call that girl they had an eye on, or go online and have weird chat conversations with people. Drunk people were weird. Why did anyone like getting drunk? Alcohol tasted like shit, anyways.

But here she was. Pointing a gun at a drunk girl. Who apparently fought a murderer? No clue. She "challenged" John Ferrari or whatever the fuck that meant, and apparently that gave her badass cred. Okay? Why did she keep running into annoying people? Girls who ranted and guilt-tripped at her, girls who were apparently drunk (how do you get drunk here, anyways?)... god, what's next? Is someone going to throw a rubber ducky or something after this? And other than that... did the girl kill the Ferrari guy or something?

So, how do you talk to a drunk girl, anyways?

Especially in a scenario like this?

Show off the pretty little gun?

Yes. Show off the pretty little gun.

"Uh... did Ferrari person have somefing like 'fis?" Kami replied, slightly waving the gun in both her hands.

It's a gun! A fucking gun! Drunk people knew how to recognize them, right?

And oh god, why did she feel a little anxious? Drunk people weren't scary or anything. But there it was, that tightening of the throat that always showed up. Why did that always happen? God, was she full of nerves today or something?

Bake We'll just ask Elena to add a new area into the compound. "Siobhan's Cleavage" - The spaciously large cleavage of an overweight, promiscuous cheerleader who wants to go to Beauty School. THREADS ALLOWED: 8

12:40 Slamexo She [Sidney] sells trollin' and trollin' accessories

02:41 Medic Why does the world hate my racist jackass--wait that speaks for itself.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. This girl was trying to be all tough. Trying to be all cool and stuff, like she had things down pat, had 'em under control, but Nikki knew, yes she did, she knew this girl was just gonna cave now. It made sense, yeah? She'd sown that seed of doubt. One big advantage to being that quiet kinda lumpy girl in the corner was that, well, sure she didn't know anyone else, but that meant no one else knew her. Nobody had any clue if she was some sort of latent psycho, spending her days collecting dead animals from the sides of highways and sewing a shawl from their skins. No one knew if she dreamed of plucking eyeballs from sockets and licking the vitreous fluids from them before sticking 'em on those little sword toothpick thingies and putting 'em martinis.

The girl wanted to know if Ferrera had had a gun like hers. Well, that was lovely and dandy, and there was really only one way to respond to capitalize on the situation.

"Nah," Nikki said, smiling. "His was much bigger."

Yeah, puzzle that one out.

Nikki kept smiling and tried to get closer in, maybe back this girl off a bit. She was still kinda stumbly, though. Wasn't exactly quick going. Dang. She'd only made it, like, four steps.

"So, uh, yeah, how 'bout just, like, dropping the gun and running now?" she suggested. That would spare everyone the trouble. Heck, she could just sit by the wall and look at the gun and try to will it closer to her, until she either developed psychic powers or sobered up. Sounded like a plan.

So Mr. Ferrari man had a much bigger gun. Uh, wow. Heh heh. So drunk girl fought off a guy with a heavy machine gun or something? Yikes. Really, what was she supposed to do? Was drunk girl bullshitting her or something?

And if that wasn't enough... she wanted her to drop the gun and start running. But Kami... Kami didn't want to. Kami wanted this gun on her, to keep her safe. It was her new friend, in a way. And drunk girl wasn't going to have it. She didn't deserve to have it. Drunk girl was drunk. Drunk people had no need for guns. They'd have no aim, for starters.

But, as the girl approached, Kami found herself getting just that much more anxious.

Was she really dealing with someone who had actually killed?

Was she really dealing with someone who had already fought off Ferrari person killer thing?

Bah. She wasn't scared. She was just trembling, because... she wasn't used to holding a gun before! Yes, that's it! And the drunk girl was just being intimidating... intimidating and annoying? But overall intimidating. How can drunk people be intimidating? They're drunk and can't do anything to you. Heck, she had no weapons or anything!

But she wasn't scared, was she?

Was she?

Was... she...

"STAY BACK!" Kami shrieked, pulling the trigger.

Within the next few seconds, a number of things happened. It was all a blur really. A smell like lead, the gun's recoil making it hard to hold, the crack of the bullet... oh god.

Bake We'll just ask Elena to add a new area into the compound. "Siobhan's Cleavage" - The spaciously large cleavage of an overweight, promiscuous cheerleader who wants to go to Beauty School. THREADS ALLOWED: 8

12:40 Slamexo She [Sidney] sells trollin' and trollin' accessories

02:41 Medic Why does the world hate my racist jackass--wait that speaks for itself.

It was working. It was really, honestly working! Nikki felt like she should laugh as she took a couple more steps towards the girl, but instead she made a kind of shrieky gasp sound as the girl shouted at her and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet punching through Nikki's rib cage, to hit some bone in her back and rebound, rattle around a little, tearing some nice holes in important organs.

That was, wait, what?

She blinked a couple times, tried to say something, tried to think. Settled for trying to ease herself to the ground, but that didn't work so well either, as she just sort of took another step and then slammed to her knees, hard. The alcohol was still messing up her system. That, and her spinal column had maybe been damaged just the littlest of bits. Not that she could feel anything much now, not through the shock. She just sort of looked at the other girl who held the gun. Looked like this was kinda hard on her too. Pity, but really, she shouldn't get to complain. It'd been her choice to pull the trigger.

Nikki started to slump forwards, noticed the red spreading from her chest down her shirt and onto the ground. She tried to push the blood back in, but it didn't work so well.

Everything was fading except the feeling. That was actually coming on strong now. Her chest hurt. A lot. If she'd had the time or inclination, she could probably have come up with something poetic, but instead she was preoccupied with trying to breathe, because the bullet, while bouncing around, had torn a pretty good hole in her left lung, which was now filling with blood.

This sucked.

All of a sudden, Nikki felt pretty stupid. Trying to back down people with guns? Acting tough? Who was she kidding? She should've just stuck to the plan, should've just sat around and waited to die. What was the difference? She'd followed Siobhan and lost her. That was all. It didn't matter. She didn't matter. Hadn't done anything worthwhile. She would've liked to cry, but her body was too preoccupied with shutting down from blood loss and oxygen deprivation. It was becoming hard to think. She wished she could achieve something, scream a warning or make a speech or something, but it just wasn't gonna happen. Instead, she was just gonna hurt and then, in a minute or so, not hurt anymore.

The ground was pressing into her face. All she could see was gravel and grass. A blade of grass had caught on her eyelid, was brushing her eye. It hurt, but she couldn't close her eye, try as she might.

Kami simply stared at what remained of drunk girl. Simply stared. And suddenly, she burst into a chuckle. Wow, she didn't know she could do something like that! It was easy! That fucking easy! Just pull the trigger, BOOM! All you got was aching wrists! Nothing more, nothing less!

She laughed, and laughed, and laughed...

Soon enough she calmed down. Oh god, it was a piece of cake.

....

....

....

....

Oh god.

She really did kill someone, didn't she?

And suddenly, it didn't seem all that funny.

Did... did she really? But she was attacking her, and.... and... oh god. That girl... really was dead, wasn't she? She was dead. She wasn't coming back. Kami continued staring down at the corpse. No, it can't be a real person. This... this was like a game, right? A game! You were supposed to kill people and then pose their corpses in silly fashions like how one would in a video game! It was supposed to be easy! Not... not...

And suddenly, Kami turned and ran across the corner, to where she had been previously, before she had ran into that drunk girl. And suddenly, she slumped down on the ground, just seconds after placing her gun down.

She wasn't dead, right?

Wasn't... dead....

______

"How goes folks?"

Kami let out another shriek as she dropped the food packet again. Damn it, that was the second time. Couldn't she eat something without the announcements turning on? She wasn't in the best of moods, either. The tightening in her throat had calmed down, but she was still having a bit of trouble breathing. She didn't kill her. She was alive, safe and sound and off doing whatever drunk people did. Kami wasn't a murderer just yet, right?

And soon the douche went on, talking about double kills and patriotism.

Oh, and as if her mood couldn't be worsened in any way?

He started singing. Horribly.

Seriously, who knew that the Star Spangled Banner could be raped in such a manner? The only way this could be worse was if that friend of her mom's who thought he was an excellent musician and yet was far from it was singing it. But it still was intolerable. Oh god, not one note was right. They were really trying to torture them, weren't they?

And finally Kami had enough.

"Shut UP! Go fuck an American Flag or somefing! Jesus!" she yelled, but all the atrociousness only made her voice barely audible.

God damn it, this wasn't improving her mood at all.

But finally, it ended. Announcements went on like normal. One more person was mentioned, and...

That was it. The entire group knew she had killed someone.

One more person was mentioned, and finally he stopped talking.

That was that. Six people were dead. Pretty much everyone and their dog knew that she had shot and killed a drunk chick. People were probably going to see her only as someone who shot and killed a drunk chick by this point.

Packing her things back into her bag, she lifted herself off the ground and headed into the building she had planned to enter before all this mess.

Right now, she needed to find a place to lie down and think this all over. Maybe playing wasn't such a good idea after all.

Bake We'll just ask Elena to add a new area into the compound. "Siobhan's Cleavage" - The spaciously large cleavage of an overweight, promiscuous cheerleader who wants to go to Beauty School. THREADS ALLOWED: 8

12:40 Slamexo She [Sidney] sells trollin' and trollin' accessories

02:41 Medic Why does the world hate my racist jackass--wait that speaks for itself.